Sunday, May 15, 2005

Amitabh Bachchan: A Beggar?!

This week's Takkar featured Amitabh Bachchan. Though I missed the show, but the promos on the channel showed Mr.Bachchan saying (verbatim, replying to,"If you are selective of your roles nowadays") -- "See, beggars can not be choosers. I'm now 62 and I can only act in films. I can not do anything else but acting.". This statement should be seen in the light of the knowledge about his failed ventures outside film industry. First, he had a very bad run as a parliamentarian. Next, he floated ABCL and ended as almost a bankrupt. The financial crunch forced him to come back to films after 5 years' hiatus. So, its quite understandable that he doesn't feel quite comfortable outside the industry, but is the situation so bad that he considers himself a beggar! I can't imagine him begging producers/directors for roles in films.

In an earlier interview, I saw him saying that he fears that if he refuses any roles, eventually the roles will stop coming! How lame is that?! Lately we've seen a lot of Mr.Bachchan. He has endorsed almost everything except perhaps undergarments. He has done numerous films lately. While some of the directors have made good use of this opportunity to cast him, some have tried plainly to use him in cliched roles. Most recent disappointment was Waqt. I don't think if he gets selective about his roles and limit himself to roles like Black, Khakee, Baghban, etc, his demand will go down. The fact remains that he is still a powerful actor, perhaps the most powerful actor currently in Bollywood. Sadly, Bollywood can't think beyond casting him as father, uncle, colonel kind of cliched roles. Why can't they discover Bachchan in roles like ones played by Morgan Freeman or Sean Connery?

I don't have enough knowledge to comment on his financial situation, but how bad can it be? He has been working tirelessly for around 8-10 years after his company drowned. Abhishek Bachchan is quite established by himself in Bollywood and is finally picking up among the critics & masses. I think Amitabh owes it to his fans that he selects better roles, it's really sad to see his wasting his talent like that.

9 comments:

Pankaj Jain said...
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Pankaj Jain said...

Amit-ji-bachchan-ji's humility makes him say this. And I think he is out of that bankruptcy thing. has paid off his creditors. I guess we appreciate his few good roles more beacuse of roles like in Boom. Yeah one with Katrina pheww!!

And about comment popup. When the link to comment shows. http://something...#comments then the company firewall allows. this is true on my blog. Anyway main commment likh to fir bhi nahin paunga only viewing will be possible. Now I am at home.

Unknown said...

He is still to pay off all his loans

himanshu agrawal said...

from what i know, he had cleared all his ABCL related debt from the earnings of KBC. and coming to selection of roles, i think he might be being modest as always.

Varun Singh said...

It's not just about being modest. He has chosen to do everything coming his way. An actor of his stature must be more selective when it comes to roles. Today even Meera boasts about being choosy about roles -- whats to immodest about it? Don't you think if he does *only* good roles he's going to stay for longer. He is quickly moving in the direction of being stereotyped in father's roles.

Satyajit said...

Yeah! He should be careful in selecting the roles considering that he is well out of financial crisis and his son has established himself in the industry. Also a recent article stated that he has got one of the biggest brand value in the industry. So calling himself a beggar might just be another expression of modesty, which is highly valued in our society. I wish that he should at least not go for those father's roles in all those mushy movies, where you can figure out just by looking at script. For a movie like Boom, it sounds good as far as the script goes. The movie was total nonsense is altogether a different matter, because you sign a movie here by looking at a script. All this notwithstanding, the way he has dragged himself out of the trouble is highly commendable.

himanshu agrawal said...

he is playing another different role in Sarkaar
watch the trailer, it's available at :
http://www.indiafm.com/video/s.shtml

Anonymous said...

When Mr.Bachchan became bankrupt, his debts mounted up to the tune of Rs 90 crores ! He did go to Yash Chopra and asked him for a role (may not be classified as begging). There must have been immense pressure on him at that time. Psychologically his fears today maybe understandable.

What has Abhishek Bachchan's success got to do with his father. Do you expect the Senior B to ask his son for money ??

Varun Singh said...

I am told he has paid off all his previous debts. In such a scenario, he doesn't have *any* apparent need to be "begging" around for roles. That was exactly my point.
As far as Abhishek's thing go, why can't he help his dad if he wants? What's so no-no about that?!